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- The SIG/M Report
- by Bruce Ratoff
-
- Cash Memory
-
- Bill Chin sends this treasurer's report for those
- who want to know our financial situation. Here's
- how it adds up as of May 1, 1981:
-
- Income
-
- Balance of SIG/M account $ 782.41
- Deposits $ 1892.00
-
- Total $ 2674.41
-
- Expenses
-
- Telephone $ 23.69
- Postage 70.59
- Diskettes 2452.89
- Other 250.00
- Bank Charges 39.84
-
- Total $ 2837.01
-
- Net position $ ( 162.60)
-
- Note that this report does not include a number of
- unprocessed prepaid orders which came in after
- Bill wrote the report. When these are processed,
- we should be solidly "in the black".
-
-
- CATalog
-
- The SIG/M post office box continues to be flooded
- with requests for our catalog. With the library
- up to 25 volumes and more on the way, the catalog
- has exceeded the capacity of a normal letter-size
- envelope and 1/2 ounce postage. We are therefore
- requesting that a large (9 x 12) envelope and
- fifty (50) cents postage accompany all catalog
- requests. Without this, you're cutting into our
- lunch money!
-
- There are a couple of other ways of getting the
- catalog. These are:
-
- 1. If you have a modem, copy the catalog from any
- Remote CP/M system. Most of these carry our
- catalog and the most recent SIG/M Report.
- ACGNJers can check the staff page of the ACGNJ
- News for the Cranford, NJ and Allentown, PA system
- numbers.
-
- 2. Buy the combined CPMUG and SIG/M catalog
- printed and distributed by the New York Amateur
- Computer Club (NYACC). This may be ordered for
- $10 (domestic) or $12 (overseas) from: NYACC, P.O.
- Box 106, New York, NY 10008, or picked up at a
- meeting for $8.
-
-
- Disk Copying
-
- If you attended one of the last few SIG/M
- meetings, then you know how heavy the load has
- become. Howard Fingerhut, our faithful at-meeting
- copyer, has been taking home more and more
- "homework" diskettes every month. Therefore, he
- has asked that from now on, members should please
- limit themselves to two disks copied per meeting.
- If you need (?) more than this, you may buy ready-
- made copies for $4 each or swap a NEW blank floppy
- for a copy for $1. These last two apply to disks
- picked up at MEETINGS ONLY.
-
-
- SIG/M Elections
-
- The big news this month is that SIG/M is holding
- its first elections of officers. The terms will
- begin immediately and run until December 1982.
- After that time, SIG/M officer terms will run for
- one year, similarly to the regular ACGNJ officers.
- Elections will be held for the offices of:
-
- Chairman
- Vice-Chairman
- Secretary
- Treasurer
-
- And about half a dozen assorted committee heads.
- Nominations were held for Chairman at the June
- meeting, and will be re-opened at the July 10
- meeting. The non-winning candidates for each
- office are automatically nominated for each lower
- position unless they elect to decline. Additional
- nominations will be taken for each office prior to
- each vote. The present nominees for chairman are:
-
- Bruce Ratoff Bill Chin Bill Earnest
- Howard Fingerhut Henry Kee Ray Glueck
-
-
- Getting Used by the Users Group
-
- Last week, unofficial word reached our ears that
- the CP/M Users Group run by Tony Gold and
- sponsored by Lifeboat Associates was preparing to
- incorporate SIG/M's software library into their
- own WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION. Since
- that time, I have had several telephone
- conversations with Tony, Ed Currie (also of
- Lifeboat), and Jim Mills and Ward Christensen (of
- CACHE SIG-CP/M, who does most of the cataloging
- and abstracting for CPMUG. The CACHE people told
- me that they were not involved at all. Tony and
- Ed both insisted that no public announcement or
- distribution would have been done without
- consulting us, and asked that SIG/M supply an
- official statement of our position on the subject.
-
-
- The following letter is the result of our June 12
- meeting, and was mailed to CPMUG Monday, June 15.
-
- June 14, 1981
-
- Mr. Anthony R. Gold
- CP/M Users Group
- 1651 Third Avenue
- New York, NY 10028
-
- Dear Tony
-
- First of all, let me thank you and Ed for your
- quick telephone response to my inquiries regarding
- CPMUG's use of the SIG/M Software Library. As you
- requested, I have placed the question of an
- acceptable method of distribution before the
- general membership of SIG/M at the meeting held
- Friday, June 12, 1981. After much debate, a
- resolution was unanimously passed, authorizing the
- CP/M Users Group operated by you and sponsored by
- Lifeboat Associates to distribute the SIG/M
- Software Library, subject to the following
- conditions:
-
- 1. Each volume must be identified only by its
- SIG/M volume number, in the diskette's contents,
- on its external label, and in any mention in
- printed or machine-readable catalogs. This means
- that you are explicitly requested not to assign
- CPMUG volume numbers to our material. We are
- certain that this represents no hardship to you,
- in view of the many organizations that currently
- maintain both libraries with their respective
- numbering systems.
-
- 2. Each volume must remain intact, as released by
- SIG/M, with no files added, deleted, renamed or
- altered in content. It is requested that the
- files contained on these volumes be distributed
- solely on their respective SIG/M volumes, and not
- transferred to or incorporated into present or
- future CPMUG library volumes.
-
- 3. The fee charged by CPMUG for these volumes must
- not exceed the true cost of media, copying and
- mailing. It is expected that this fee will not
- exceed the fee charged for CPMUG volumes.
-
- 4. CPMUG is authorized to append a catalog of
- SIG/M Library volumes to the catalog of CPMUG
- library volumes, provided that the SIG/M titling
- and numbering is retained as the only
- identification of these volumes.
-
- The above conditions are exactly the same as those
- requested of the many other organizations who
- currently distribute the SIG/M library. As these
- other organizations have no difficulty or
- objection in adhering to our wishes, it is our
- hope that CPMUG will do likewise.
-
- A second resolution was passed at our meeting,
- coordially inviting you, Ed Currie, and any other
- interested parties at Lifeboat, Lifelines or CPMUG
- to become a member of ACGNJ and SIG/M. We believe
- that your participation in our activities would be
- of great mutual benefit, and hope that you will
- consider our invitation favorably.
-
- Thank you again for your time and interest.
-
- Yours truly
-
- Bruce R. Ratoff
- Vice-chairman
-
- I hope to be able to publish Tony's reply in our
- next column. He has indicated that this letter
- and his reply will also appear in a future issue
- of Lifelines magazine.
-
-
- That's it for this month. Hope your enjoying the
- summer. Keep cool!
- Bruce
-